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nightraven31's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
bobonnie's review against another edition
3.0
This was a difficult book for me to rate and I’m still somewhat conflicted as I write this. On the one hand, there were several points where I had to stop and think about the truthfulness of what was being presented. I really enjoyed the book at these points. I guess I may be an old prude to an extent, because I thought there were parts which were overdone and unnecessary. Again, though, definitely a lot of sad truth was told.
jrod9291's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a little scattered, in my opinion. I still love the way Coelho writes, I just wasn't as into the story as some of the others from him. I did find it interesting seeing all the parallels in the story with the characters versus his life. Not my favorite from him, but I'm still a huge fan of his works.
rosethetortoise's review against another edition
So true.. No matter how alone or independent or isolated we feel our lives cannot help but affect the lives of others.
motionab's review against another edition
3.0
Congratulations Mr. Paulo on being able to write the EXACT SAME THING using different sentences!!!!
I am baffled.
Seems that he was able to plagiarize Jubran Khalil Jubran's The Prophet so perfectly because he has been basically stealing from himself by repeating the same book over and over again.
The story is well-written. Keeps u interested, as expected from the author, and for once in his life he actually wrote a good ending. Is it a miracle? Yes. Yes, it's a miracle.
3 out of 5 because its relatively entertaining. But u can literally read anything else by him they are ALL THE SAME!
I am baffled.
Seems that he was able to plagiarize Jubran Khalil Jubran's The Prophet so perfectly because he has been basically stealing from himself by repeating the same book over and over again.
The story is well-written. Keeps u interested, as expected from the author, and for once in his life he actually wrote a good ending. Is it a miracle? Yes. Yes, it's a miracle.
3 out of 5 because its relatively entertaining. But u can literally read anything else by him they are ALL THE SAME!
shedonist's review against another edition
4.0
Despite the morbid name this is a lovely exploration of life, fear, what makes life worth living, and what is normal. Veronika fails in her attempt to commit suicide, but wakes up in a mental institution learning she is near death for another reason. Her exploration during that time of why she wants to die forms the meat of the story, but the way she affects other patients and they affect her also plays into things. Veronika wants to die, or does she?
chandlerkircher's review against another edition
4.0
“To a greater or lesser degree, everyone had some bitterness in their organism, just as we are all carriers of the tuberculosis bacillus. But these two illnesses only attack when the patient is debilitated; in the case of bitterness, the right conditions for the disease occur when the person becomes afraid of so-called reality. Certain people, and their eagerness to construct a world no external threat can penetrate, build exaggeratedly high defenses against the outside world, against new people, new places, different experiences, and leave their inner world stripped bare. It is there that bitterness begins its irrevocable work…
In order to avoid external attack, they had also deliberately limited internal growth…
The great problem with poisoning by bitterness was that the passions – hatred, love, despair, enthusiasm, curiosity – also ceased to manifest themselves. After a while the embittered person felt no desire at all. He or she lacked the will either to live or to die, that was the problem.”
“You have passed through the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patience to wait for the right moment, and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.”
“Am I cured?
No. You’re someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness.
Is wanting to be different a serious illness?
It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia. It’s a distortion of nature, it goes against God’s laws, for in all the world’s woods and forests, he did not create a single leaf the same as another. But you think it’s insane to be different, and that’s why you choose to live in Villete [the mental asylum], because everyone is different here, and so you appear to be the same as everyone else. Do you understand?
People go against nature because they lack the courage to be different, and then the organism starts to produce Vitriol, or bitterness, as this poison is more commonly known.”
In order to avoid external attack, they had also deliberately limited internal growth…
The great problem with poisoning by bitterness was that the passions – hatred, love, despair, enthusiasm, curiosity – also ceased to manifest themselves. After a while the embittered person felt no desire at all. He or she lacked the will either to live or to die, that was the problem.”
“You have passed through the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patience to wait for the right moment, and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.”
“Am I cured?
No. You’re someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness.
Is wanting to be different a serious illness?
It is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia. It’s a distortion of nature, it goes against God’s laws, for in all the world’s woods and forests, he did not create a single leaf the same as another. But you think it’s insane to be different, and that’s why you choose to live in Villete [the mental asylum], because everyone is different here, and so you appear to be the same as everyone else. Do you understand?
People go against nature because they lack the courage to be different, and then the organism starts to produce Vitriol, or bitterness, as this poison is more commonly known.”
nxunz's review against another edition
5.0
The book is amazing, it's a philosophical story, you have to read it entirely to really grasp what the author is communicating through it.
unkunkel's review against another edition
2.0
Pseudotiefgründig und mit hervorsehbarem Ende. Das Lesen hat keinen Spaß gemacht...aber immerhin hat sich Coelho kurz gehalten und man musste das Blabla nicht über 500 Seiten ertragen. ;)